Mayor Turner: State should declare Zika public health...

1of21Solid Waste Management employees Dennis Bowen, left, and Avrin Mitchell help remove tires from an illegal dumping site on Wellington Road. City officials, including Mayor Sylvester Turner, held a press conference at the dump site to urge the governor to declare a disaster in order to help the city remove breeding grounds for mosquitos that could carry the zika virus Thursday, June 9, 2016 in Houston.Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle

2of21Texas senator Sylvia Garcia stands next to mayor Sylvester Turner at a press conference to urge the governor to declare a disaster in order to help the city remove breeding grounds for mosquitos that could carry the zika virus Thursday, June 9, 2016 in Houston.Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle

3of21What you need to know about the Zika virus.

4of21Travelers are advised to avoid travel, which could hurt Brazil economically, since they are hosting the upcoming Olympics.Photo: CHRISTOPHE SIMON, AFP/Getty Images

5of21No vaccine currently exists for the Virus, the best way to avoid the virus is to prevent mosquito bites.Photo: Mario Tama, Getty Images

6of21Postponing pregnancies is unrealisticWarnings to such places like Colombia, Ecuador and Jamaica, where about half of all pregnancies are unintended, is said to be unrealistic.“This is another example in which women’s bodies become the place of control instead of directing the public crisis, which is this illness,” said Tarah Demant, senior director of the Identity and Discrimination Unit at Amnesty International USA.

7of21200,000 soldiers deployed in BrazilBrazilian soldiers aim to kill mosquitoes that may have the Zika virus. The Zika virus - which was at first thought to
be relatively innocuous - may have arrived in Brazil during the 2014 World Cup
by visitors from French Polynesia, where an outbreak had just occurred.Scientists estimate as many as 1.5 million people could now
be infected in Brazil.

8of21The Zika virus can be spread from a pregnant woman to her unborn baby. There have been reports of a serious birth defect of the brain called microcephaly and other poor pregnancy outcomes in babies of mothers who were infected with Zika virus while pregnant.Photo: SCHNEYDER MENDOZA, AFP/Getty Images

9of21Dr. Anthony Fauci, who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said researchers hadn’t been focused on Zika, since the severe risks to infants were not seen in such great numbers.Photo: Alex Wong, Getty Images

10of21Smaller skulls, drastic outcomesThe Zika virus has also been attributed to problems in the formation of the skull, genetic issues, Down syndrome and a lack of oxygen to the brain, says the Mayo Clinic. Drugs, alcohol and exposure to some chemicals during pregnancy can also contribute to an embryo suffering from microcephaly.

11of21CDC says there has been one report of possible spread of the virus through blood transfusion and one report of possible spread of the virus through sexual contact.
In Dallas, the first case of a Zika infection transmitted by sex was confirmed. The person infected came back form a trip in Venezuela.Photo: ERNESTO BENAVIDES, AFP/Getty Images

12of21A new danger from Zika surfaced: paralysis. The virus may cause Guillain-Barré syndrome, in which a person’s immune system attacks part of the nervous system. There is not yet a cure.Photo: Mario Tama, Getty Images

13of21Zika fever was first discovered in Uganda in the 1940s. Thus it was named after the Zika Forest in Uganda. WHO said this outbreak of the virus is a public health emergency of international concern, granting it a designation last conferred on the Ebola epidemic.
Uganda, Bwindi National Park, View over dense forest area. (Photo by: Eye Ubiquitous/UIG via Getty Images)Photo: Eye Ubiquitous, UIG via Getty Images

14of21The virus is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus mosquito, which is the same insect responsible for the spread of yellow fever, chikungunya, viral encephalitis – and West Nile and dengue.Photo: LUIS ROBAYO, AFP/Getty Images

15of21Colombia has second highest rate of infectionIn Colombia, which has the second-highest rate of Zika infection—13,500 cases have been identified in the last three months.

16of21In January 12, 2016, ArboNET surveillance system reported a total of 679 chikungunya virus cases in 44 U.S. states.Photo: PEDRO PARDO, AFP/Getty Images

17of21Avoid taking aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), like ibuprofen and naproxen, until dengue can be ruled out to reduce the risk of hemorrhage.
Health officials are also advising women and men to stray away from sex for at least 2 to 3 years.Photo: MIGUEL SCHINCARIOL, AFP/Getty Images

18of21Women are being warned to avoid travelling to 22 countriesThe first trimester of the pregnancy is the most dangerous, health official said. In places like El Salvador, health officials are advising all women in the country not to get pregnant until 2018. Other nations, like Colombia and Ecuador, are urging women to put off becoming pregnant for months, or until the dangers of the virus are better understood, according to the New York Times.

19of21Disease spread to the Tiger MosquitoExperts now believe that the disease itself could potentially be spread within Italy by the Tiger Mosquito – which, although once native to Asia, is now widespread across southern Europe.
‘The disease could be carried by the Tiger Mosquito,’ Fabrizio Pregliasco, a virologist at the University of Milan, told La Repubblica.

20of21Forced entryBrazilian President Dilma Rousseff authorized health officials to enter private properties by force if necessary in an effort to control the spread of the mosquito-borne virus Zika, which the government has dubbed an "imminent danger to public health."

21of21Gearing for visitorsBrazil is also the host of the Carnival festival, scheduled to start Feb. 5, and the Olympic Games, scheduled to start Aug. 5. Reuters reported that Rio de Janeiro had ordered about 3,000 city workers to spray for mosquitoes near Carnival parade routes.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner on Thursday called on the state to declare the Zika virus a public health emergency and dedicate money toward local efforts to fight it.

At a news conference at a tire dump in north Houston, Turner said he has written the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality requesting it make funding available to protect Houston residents from the mosquito-borne virus. The agency has a balance of $130 million in its solid waste disposal fees account that could be used, the mayor said.

"This pile of tires is ground zero in a fight against the Zika virus," the mayor said. "There is a critical need for help in paying for this massive effort. We have programs already under way and would welcome state help in funding them."

Turner said his office is talking with Gov. Greg Abbott about the request, though it is the TCEQ that would need to declare Zika an emergency threat to the public health and make funding available. A spokeswoman at TCEQ said the agency is reviewing the mayor's request.

Abbott's office did not specifically respond to questions about Turner's request, but said that "Texas is working with our local and federal partners to ensure Texans are protected from the Zika virus."

A spokesman for the governor said Abbott on Thursday participated in a governors' conference call hosted by the White House and led by Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden to discuss strategies to address the Zika threat and efforts to combat the virus."

Turner said the city would use any state funding to increase the frequency of cleaning up any receptacles that hold standing water discarded along the road, develop and distribute educational materials about how residents can prevent Zika transmission and establish additional trash drop-off locations.

Since February, the city's solid waste department has hauled off 3,000 tons of debris and 19,000 tires as part of its effort to reduce mosquito-breeding sites. The effort is expected to cost $3.6 million this year, Turner said.

Also on Thursday, the World Health Organization recommended that people living in areas where the Zika virus is circulating should consider delaying pregnancy to avoid having babies with birth defects. The virus has been linked to abnormally small heads and brain damage in infants born to infected mothers.

The WHO issued the guidance this week because of new evidence the virus is sexually transmitted more than previously thought. The virus has spread from Brazil, the epicenter of the epidemic, to 46 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean. Puerto Rico is the only part of the United States where there is known to be local transmission of the virus. There have been 12 confirmed cases in Harris County, all involving people who acquired the infection elsewhere. Texas has 41 reported cases.

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Earlier this week, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick asked President Barack Obama for emergency funding for Zika virus prevention statewide, warning that the summer could bring a large-scale outbreak, especially following weeks of widespread floods. Patrick wrote Obama that "it is only a matter of time before Zika is locally transmitted by mosquitoes."

Federal funding is still tied up in Congress, four months after President Barack Obama requested $1.9 billion in emergency funding. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-KY, the majority leader, said Wednesday that congressional negotiators are now ready to reconcile the bills approved by the Senate ($1.1 billion) and the House ($620 million).

Turner said that the call for Zika to be declared a public health emergency is "a bipartisan cause." He was joined at the news conference by state senators Sylvia Garcia and Sarah Davis and state representatives Senfronia Thompson and Armando Walle. Davis called the appeal for emergency state funding for prevention efforts "the fiscally conservative thing to do."

Todd Ackerman is a veteran reporter who has covered medicine for the Houston Chronicle since 2001. A graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles, he previously worked for the Raleigh News & Observer, the National Catholic Register, the Los Angeles Downtown News and the San Clemente Sun-Post.